Oracle reportedly set to axe thousands of jobs and freeze hiring as AI data center bets ignite financial perfect storm — cuts in cloud division to be backfilled with AI

Source: Tom’s Hardware

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According to a Bloomberg report citing inside sources, Oracle is preparing to lay off thousands of employees across multiple divisions. The plans are still private, but Bloomberg’s sources expect the cuts to occur this calendar month. Two informants said the layoffs will target job categories that Oracle intends to backfill with AI, and the move falls outside the firm’s usual layoff cycle.

Background and Financial Context

Oracle, like OpenAI, is making large bets on AI data centers and expects to operate at a loss until 2030, spending hundreds of billions of dollars in the process. Investors have reacted negatively to the scale of these investments and the circular nature of the ecosystem, as discussed in a Tom’s Hardware analysis. Consequently, Oracle’s stock price has fallen about 50 % since its September 2025 peak, though it still trades above 2023 levels.

The hiring freeze is expected to extend to cloud service positions, which are critical for executing Oracle’s AI strategy. Some investors have even filed lawsuits alleging that the company misrepresented its spending and borrowing projections. Oracle plans to raise roughly $50 billion through debt and equity sales to help balance its books.

Related article: Shareholders sue Oracle over misleading statements related to $300 billion OpenAI data‑center build‑out